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Exchange Visitor Program

New Dept Postdoc and Other Academicians

MN Space Grant Consortium

Experimental Study Group: In spring semester 2000, the Minnesota Space Grant had a trial run of an Experimental Study Group for students enrolled in one of our AEM service courses, Deformable Body Mechanics (AEM 3031). The Study Group introduced different learning strategies for the students involved and, utilized some of our own AEM graduate and undergraduate students as group leaders.

Advanced STEPS camp for girls: A program funded by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation (SMEEF) and the Bush Foundation is designed to give women and minorities a better chance of becoming engineering heroes. The program entitled STEPS (Science Technology & Engineering Preview Summer) is a summer camp program which is the nation’s first coordinated and integrated approach to attracting girls and minorities into careers in manufacturing and technology. Its concept is to reach girls early enough to influence their choices of math, science and technical courses in middle and high school and, to prepare them to succeed in college level engineering programs. This year, the University of Minnesota sponsored the first senior high level camp called Advanced STEPS that featured a rocket payload and launch. Faculty from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering, designed and implemented the curriculum for the camp. Graduate and undergraduate students from each of the two departments assisted with pre-launch, and post-launch activities each week, including the assistance of Ky Michaelson, alias “The Rocketman,” a professional pyrotechnician in the Twin Cities area. The University of St. Thomas, and Alexandria Technical College hosted the junior high STEPS camps that will feed into the Advanced STEPS camps at the Univeristy of Minnesota next year.

The 1999-2000 Annual MnSGC Undergraduate Student Research Symposium was held at Augsburg College and Bemidji State University on April 14 and 19 respectively this year. There were featured speakers, student research-paper and research-poster presentations to highlight the successful and informative symposium at each of the schools.

Exchange Visitor Program

Beatrice Belletti, a graduate student at the University of Parma in Parma, Italy, visited the laboratory of Professor Shield for two months this spring. She studied microscopic moire interferometry methods that Professor Shield uses to measure surface strains on single metallic crystals. Ms. Belletti hopes to apply similar methods to study the micromechanics of concrete as part of her post-graduate research.

Jo Einar Emblemsvåg is a Fulbright Scholar from Norway. He came to the Department in August 1999 as an exchange student. He applied to and was admitted to the graduate program in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, where he is now studying.

Professor Toshio Funada returned to the Department for two short periods in late 1999 and early 2000. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture in Japan provides travel grants and maintenance for Dr. Funada’s research travels. Again, he collaborated with his faculty sponsor here, Professor Dan Joseph, continuing their research on topics related to solid-liquid flows and cavitation.

Arnauld Loyer is an exchange student visitor from Paris, France. He is working together with Professor Ellen Longmire and Professor Ivan Marusic on their project concerning the acquisition of stereo PIV measurements in turbulent boundary layers. The work Mr. Loyer does here will help to fulfill degree requirements at his school, Ecole Centrale de Nantes in France.

New Departmental Postdocs and Other Academicians

Dr. Matthew McCarthy was a visiting Professor in the Department during Fall Semester 1999. He taught two of our service courses, AEM 2012, Dynamics and the combined course AEM 2021, Statics and Dynamics. He came to us from the National University of Ireland at Galway where he is a Professor of Mathematical Physics. His research work has included the study of wave propagation in composite media, as well as with the scattering of elastic waves by obstacles of finite size.

Dr. Gianni Royer has been a visiting scholar to the Department several times since 1994. In Spring Semester 2000, Dr. Royer taught our Dynamics course AEM 2012 both in day and night school. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Parma, Italy.

Dr. Jorge Tierno, who is currently a Principal Senior Research Scientist at Honeywell Technology Center in Minneapolis, taught AEM 4311, Automatic Control Systems for the Department in Fall Semester 1999. Dr. Tierno received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. His research at Honeywell Technology Center has recently included serving as Principal Investigator for the AFOSR program Techsat21, under which algorithms for management and control of closely spaced satellite clusters were developed.

Maria (Pino) Martin-Aquirre, completed her PhD in the spring of 1999 and was hired as a postdoctoral associate to work with Professor Graham Candler on his research project on the direct numerical simulation and large-eddy simulation of turbulent reacting flows.

Robert Tickle, completed his PhD, Spring 2000, and was hired as a postdoctoral associate to work with Professor Richard James on his research project on ferromagnetic shape memory materials at large and small scales.

Chris Mitchell completed his MS degree in Aerospace Engineering, Spring 2000 and was hired as a Research Fellow to work with Professor Gordon Beavers in conducting shock tube experiments to study the aerodynamic breakup of thickened simulants under conditions corresponding to high-altitude intercepts of missiles. His work also includes the development and carrying out of experiments to study the outgassing and gas reabsorption characteristics of thickened simulants.